Figure 1.-- It was Catholic Christianity, other than Secen Day Adventists, that suffered most from the NAZIs. The doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protetrants were not the problem with the NAZIs. It was because the the Catholic Church of any religious group posed the greatest danger to the NAZIs. Not only was the Catholic Center Party a major political force, but the Catholic Church was a trans-national institution with many international ties. The family First Communion snapshot is undated, but looks to have been taken in the late-1930s.

The Germany which the NAZIs seized control of was a largely Christian country with strong Protestant and Catholic communities. The Soviet assault on religion is much better known, but the NAZIs also saw religion as a threat and began to undermine established churches in a number of ways. Hitler and the NAZIs initiated an assault on not only Germany's traditional Christian values, but religions institutions as well. Christianity itself was suspect because of its Jewish roots. At first NAZI anti-religion policy was subtle, but it increased in intensity once the NAZIs were firmly established in power. The war on the Jews was biological in nature, religion having little to do with it. Conversion to Christianity was no protection. The NAZIs began to undercut both Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church proved the biggest challenge for the NAZIs, in part because it was international in character and the Catholic Center Party had been a major political force. The NAZIs launched a spurious morals campaign to discredit Catholic prelates and laymen. Resistance to the T-4 Euthanasia program came largely from the Catholic community. Large numbers of priests in Germany were arrested and perished in concentration camps. The Protestant churches with some notable exceptions proved easier to control. Seven Say Adventists were singled out because of their anti-War beliefs and objection to conscription. One religion seen in more positive terms by the NAZIs was Islam.

Judaism

The NAZI assault on Judaism is best known. But here the focus were the Jews themselves and not the religion. Jewish theology was no more tolerable than Catholicism. The NAZI hatred was biological and a racial matter. Converted or non practicing Jews were targeted just as much as practicing Jews. The Nuremberg Laws defined a Jew in racial was well as religious terms. The NAZIs began with small steps that were incrementally expanded. First Jewish adults were targeted, but children also suffered. Jewish school children were assaulted at school and eventually expelled from state schools. Continued NAZI actions depriving adults of their livelihood and gradually their property turned Jews into displaced persons within Germany. Once World War II began, the NAZIs launched the Holocaust.

Islam

One religion seen in more positive terms by the NAZIs was Islam. Here a factor was that there were no German Muslims. And because it had propaganda value in the NAZI war on the Jews and to create problems for the British and French. Somehow they managed to cover up the brutalities of Italian Fascist rule in Libya. And while they allowed the Grand Mufti to rail against British imperialism in Berlin broadcasts, the primary goal of German and Italian war policy was to construct their own colonial empires. Papered over during the War was NAZI racial policy and the place of Arabs in a NAZI controlled future. Despite all these problems, NAZI propaganda had wide appeal in the Arab and wider-Muslim world.

Seven Day Adventists

Other than the Hews, Seven Day Adventists were the religious group the NAZIs most despised. Here the principal reason was that the Adventists opposed military conscription and service.

Protestants

Protestant churches experienced a steep numerical decline in the 1920s and 30s. A number of factors were involved here. World War I itself caused many Europeans, not only the Germans, to question their traditional values--including religious beliefs. The growing influence of Socialists and Communists were surely another factor. Some historians describe the "morally uncertain years" of Weimar Germany. Thus many Protestants especially Protestant churchmen reacted differently than Catholics to the NAZI seizure of power (1933). And many Protestant churches reported increased church attendance in the early NAZI period. Hitler himself was born in Austria and raised a Catholic, but on several occasions said that was nearer in spirit to Protestantism which after all was in part began as a German national movement against the trans-national Catholic church. Many German Protestants believed that the NAZI regime would mean a revival of Christianity as he spoke about traditional values and moved to suppress the Communists and Socialists. German Protestants were largely fiercely nationalist and thus impressed by the NAZI appeal to German nationalism. Many Protestants, including pastors, joined the NAZI Party. (This was not unknown among Catholics, but was much less prevalent.) Only slowly did Protestants begin to realize that the NAZIs were not about to revitalize Christianity. The suppression of Christian youth movements, the campaign against confessional schools, and the take over of Christian charities were two of the many steps that signaled NAZI attitudes toward traditional religion. Limits on celebrating religious holidays were another NAZI measure. Relationships between the Protestant churches and the NAZIs clearly was deteriorating after a few years of NAZI rule. The NAZIs also began dismissing churchmen from government posts.

Catholics

It was Catholic Christianity, other than Seven Day Adventists, that suffered most from the NAZIs. The doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants were not the problem with the NAZIs. It was because the the Catholic Church of any religious group posed the greatest danger to the NAZIs. Not only was the Catholic Center Party a major political force, but the Catholic Church was a trans-national institution with many international ties. Catholicism was thus a special target for the NAZIs, not only because of the the Church's moral influence, but because the Church in the 19th century and during the Weimar Republic had played an important role for moderation in German parliamentary politics. Also the German Catholic Church was under the authority of the Pope and thus more difficult to dominate than the various national Protestant churches. The NAZIs saw the Pope and the Vatican as a foreign power. (This attitude was not unknown in America and Britain.) The Church also ran schools or played an important role Confessional public schools. The Catholic Church not only stood in the way of the NAZIs brutal use of terror, but it also oppossed some of the draconian racial and other eugenics programs such as sterilization and euthanasia which the NAZIs planned to adopt. Hitler soon after his seizure of power in 1933 negotiated a Concordat with the Vatican. Like the other agreements he signed, he violated the provisions of this agreement almost from the beginning and began almost immediately to attack the rights of Catholics. Catholics youth groups were exempted from the initial actions by Von Schirach as the Hitler Youth moved to either abolished or incorporated all German youth movements into the Hitler Youth. This was just temporary and a series of actions by the Hitler Youth and NAZI Government made it increasingly difficult for those young people wanting to remain in Catholic youth groups. Members of the Hitler Youth were prohibited from belonging to Church youth groups and Catholic youth groups were the most numerous and important. Membership in the Church youth groups also complicated education, especially university admissions as well as career choices. HJ membership, for example, was necessary for civil service appointments. [Gilbert, p. 15-16.] Despite signing the Concordat with the Vatican in 1933, the NAZIs steadily undermined the power and influence of the Church in Germany and arrested many priests. Once World War II began, German policies toward religions varied from country to country. The Church in Poland was a symbol of Polish nationalism and relentlessly persecuted. Priests were arrested and thousand died in the concentration camps. The Church in France because of the anti-clerical nature of the Revolution was less important as a national symbol and the NAZIs did not seek to totally destroy French national and cultural institutions, so it was not targeted by the NAZI occupiers. This was the case during the War because it would have disrupted the occupation and ability to loot the French economy. After the Germans won the War, policies toward the French would have become more draconian.

Sources

Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.